Bolo de Aipim com Coco – Aipim and Coconut Cake

A traditional Brazilian recipe for a dense and moist cake made from fresh aipim and coconut.
By Suzie Castello

Bolo de aipim is a deliciously dense cake made with aipim(manioc, cassava, yuca, or how you like to call it) and coconut.  The cake is weighty like a brownie, while chewy and satisfying like a carrot cake.  It is completely gluten-free and an incredibly delightful alternative to accompany your mid-afternoon cup of caffeine.  Packed with energy, one slice is plenty to get you through the rest of your day.

What is aipim? It has lots of names around the world:  as mentioned above, manioc, cassava and yuca are the more well-known ones.   Manihot esculenta is a tuber native to the Peruvian Andes.  According to the Tupinambá legend, the name manioc came from the fair-skinned (like the flesh of the root) goddess named Mani who chose to make her home in a manioc root. Manioc was a Pre-Columbian mainstay throughout Latin America.  During the colonial period Portuguese explorers brought it to Africa where it also became a very successful crop.  Throughout Brazil it goes by many names, such as mandioca, macaxeira, castelinha and aipim.  In my house, when we make it into a cake we call it aipim.

This recipe is a very traditional, made with another seems-to-have-always-been-here, origins- lost-to-the-mists-of-time ingredient, the coconut.  During the month June when the weather turns cold and the festivals of Saint Anthony, Saint Pedro and Saint John are celebrated, bolo de aipim is enjoyed around bonfires while sipping mulled wine.  It harkens the coming of the cold the way pumpkin pie spice suddenly appears in October and November.  Brazil doesn’t have the harsh winters of say,Minnesota, but the temperature dips enough to ignite the urge to bake, build bonfires and commemorate Saints through the longest nights of the year. This recipe is a great way to get a feel for tropical winter and discover the joys of cooking with aipim.

See Also

Melt in Your Mouth Orange and Cranberry Cake

And aipim is marvelous.  First of all, it is not very pretty.  Where I buy aipim(mostly from a guy that pushes a cart down the street, who also sells unlabeled jars of honey and some of the most beautiful okra I’ve ever seen in my life) it looks like some broken sections of tree roots still covered in hairy bark encrusted with bits of soil.  But peeling back the edge of the bark reveals pure white flesh encapsulated in a thin layer of pink freshness.  I have learned to admire these roots, their beauty and their wondrous utility.  Here are some of its uses:

• When ground into a flour (povilho) it makes fabulous cookies, crackers and pão de queijo and serves as a gluten-free alternative in baked goods.
• When ground a little rougher into a meal (farinha) it is used to make farofa (the crunchy sidedish served with churrasco), pirão (a creamy polenta –like side dish often made with fish stock) and is the secret to the fabulous crust for my homemade chicken nuggets.
• It is the mysterious substance of which tapioca pearls are made.
• When peeled, cooked and fried it will kick the butt of any french fry.
• When pureed it is the magical topping to escondidinho (sort of a Brazilian Shepherd’s Pie) and the binding agent for bobó.
• And finally here, grated and baked with coconut, eggs and sugar it makes a delicious cake.

Try that with potatoes!  (Actually I think René Redzepi is trying to do that with potatoes).